As Twitchy reported earlier this month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that his plan to hand out $53 million in debit cards to illegal aliens in the city would save $7 million a year. The New York Post reported at the time:

The $53 million pilot program, run by the New Jersey company Mobility Capital Finance, will provide asylum seekers arriving at the Roosevelt Hotel with the city cash to help them buy food, according to city records.

It’ll start with a group of 500 migrant families in short-term hotel stays and will replace the current food service offered there, according to City Hall.

The cards can only be used at bodegas, grocery stores, supermarkets and convenience stores — and migrants must sign an affidavit swearing they will only spend the funds on food and baby supplies or they will be kicked out of the program.

"Short-term hotel says." Yeah, right. And it will replace the current food service offered there. As the Post reported in December, DocGo, the contractor hired to provide illegals meals at $11 a pop, was discovered to have been throwing out as many as 5,000 uneaten meals on a single day. When asked about this, the company said it was because the illegals were eating meals they purchased on their own in their rooms. Their rooms paid for by the city.

Nicole Gelinas writes:

Which vendors did the city’s Housing Preservation & Development consider for this contract, as qualified to provide this complex financial service?

New York City is home to hundreds of top-tier financial services and public benefits providers, a dream of a competitive bidding pool, to ensure that the city gets a good price, as well as strong protections against fraud and abuse.

But HPD considered only one: Newark-based Mobility Capital Finance, which also has an office in Harlem.

MoCaFi was founded by Wole Coaxum, a former managing director at JPMorgan Chase, who said the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014 inspired him to serve the “underbanked” and “narrow the racial wealth gap.”

How did HPD choose Mobility Capital? The contract makes it quite clear: MoCaFi was “referred to HPD by City Hall.”

She continues:

As the contract document clearly and explicitly states, over the year’s term, “in exchange for [MoCaFi’s] … performance of the services, the city shall pay to the contractor a total amount not to exceed $53 [million] … in accordance with the scope of services and fees.”

That “scope of services” does not include the money that the migrants actually receive on their debit cards.

The city funds the cards — that is, puts money on them — separately.

In other words: MoCaFi issues blank Mastercards, in bulk.

And progressives will get enraged if you suggest these illegal immigrants are coming here for the free stuff. We were assured by the Democrats that they were going to pick our vegetables that would otherwise rot on the vine.